angels and neons

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fearlessfisch

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
Messages
858
Location
Northern Virginia
I've read several times on the boards lately that angels are natural predators of neon tetras. It interested me, because in the past I always had neons with angels and never had any problems. I think it was because I always got the angels when they were small, and they "grew up" with the neons--so saw them as tankmates rather than lunch. At least that's what my LFS person hypothesized when I asked him about it recently.

Was I just lucky? Have other people done this and had angels suddenly eat the neons, after living with them peacefully for a long time?

I'm not planning to add angels to my tank again. I'm just curious about this.
 
Yes fearlessfish I have had the same experience as you. I get the Angels small and they havent gotten that big yet but I havent had any problems so far, not even nipping. I hope they dont get big and then eat them, but from what I have seen they pretty much ingore them.
 
Juvenile angels could care less about neons. It is in fact the mature angels who will love to have a neon meal if they are available.

A great LFS that I frequent always has juvie angels in their stock tanks with neons. When I first saw this I immediately thought "Unhh huh...they are not as good a LFS as I thought they were...angels in a tank with neons...sheesh". But I learned about this from them and they weren't wrong at all.
 
I read in TFH that just because they are existing peacefully now, as the angels grow, the day will come when the angel discovers they fit in its mouth and the angel will hunt them all down.

Not in one day, or even one week, but you will see the neons dwindle. I have had this happen in a tank. Things were fine for months, then over about 2 weeks no more neons.
 
thanks, everyone. that was exactly the kind of information i was looking for. maybe my angels just never got quite old enough to realize they had a buffet in front of them. someday i hope i'll get a second tank and have angels again. i love them, but i really don't want to make my neons nervous. :)
 
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